By Mohammed Balu
Lilixia, (UWR), July 16, GNA – Mr Isaac Acquaah, the Site Engineer, Maripoona Ltd, supervising part of the Tumu- Wa highway construction, has indicated that, 70 per cent of the 20-kilometre stretch from Lilixia to Jeffisi has been done.
“As of now, we are working on the lot, which is 20km and the base of work done is about 70 per cent we are applying the prima seal to stabilize the sand and protect the road for the application of double seal as soon as this is done.
When you are going to Jeffisi, you can still see we are putting gravel to prepare the base for the prima seal”, he explained.
Mr Acquaah spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a visit to Lilixia, to interact with the contractor about the progress of work.
He revealed that the concentration is on the 10- kilometres and out of the 10 “we have done 7.2km of the road”.
According to Mr Acquaah, the plan was to get that stretch tarred before December 2024.
He, however, appealed to drivers to exercise restraint and reduce the speed on the road since work was still ongoing and called on owners of tractors along the construction area to ensure their disc plough hanged to the tractors to avoid damage to the road as some of them continued to destroy the current work done.
Mr Kaderi Harduna, the regent of Lilixia, thanked the contractor for the decent work done but appealed to the central government to release funds for the contractor to tar the road to Jeffisi to ease the challenges passengers go through when travelling on that road.
In 2022, the government through the Ministry of Roads and Highways awarded the eighty-five-kilometre Tumu-Han highway to four contractors to improve the existing gravel road to double seal bituminous treatment surface road.
The past Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, indicated to the GNA that the road construction contract was signed on 3rd March 2022.
According to him, the contractors involved included, Messer Mawums Company Limited, which was awarded 15 km (about 9.32 mi) from Navrongo to Tumu at the cost of GH¢82,304,751.43.
Aschal Investment Limited had also been awarded 10- km at the cost of GH¢51,360,934 from Pulima to Tumu.
The rest were: Messer’s Maripoona, which took 20 km at the cost of GH¢96,804.44 from Pulima to Lilixia towards Jeffisi, Green Hause International Development, which won the 15 – km to Jeffisi, at the cost of Gh¢37,151, 70.43 and P&W Ghanem was awarded 25km at the cost of Gh¢85, 871,553.99 whose work was to apply bitumen towards Han.
The former regional minister added: “It’s solely a government of Ghana funded project, but there are dedicated funds for it and, despite the challenge the government finds itself, the government wants the project to commence and end in two years.”
He added that the Tumu-Han-Lawra Road was also dear to the heart of the President and assured the people of the Upper West Region that the government was committed to working on the roads.
However, checks by the GNA showed that one of the contractors, Messrs Mawums, working from Banu to Tumu specifically on bridges at Kunchokor and Naveriwie appeared stalled whilst Green Hause International Development never reported to the site after signing contracts in 2022 with the reasons unknown.
It was six months to the end of the two-year promise, yet work on the highway, which was expected to be in its completion stages, seemed otherwise with large parts of the roads including the two bridges of Naveriwie and Kunchokor uncompleted.
The current state of the bridge could disturb vehicular movement during this rainy season between the Upper East and West regions.
Farmers, traders, and passengers using the Navrongo-Tumu-Wa highway might face challenges carrying farm inputs and other goods should the rainfall become severe.
The same can be said of the stretch between Jeffisi through Nandon-Wala to Han, where several accidents are recorded yearly, especially during the peak of the rainy season involving mostly vehicles transporting goods to and from Burkina Faso through Tumu.
GNA